


A Chance to Explain

by yeahyoursisbetterprobably



Series: Fink and the Dragon [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Next Generation, Parent Hiccstrid, Post-Canon, post httyd 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-17 14:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18100619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeahyoursisbetterprobably/pseuds/yeahyoursisbetterprobably
Summary: “Most chiefs lose their paperwork, or their cloak pin. Not me; I manage to lose my only son.”





	A Chance to Explain

“Nuffink’s wandered off.”

“Okay?”

“Again.”

“So, that makes it ... the fifth time?”

“In less than two weeks.”

Hiccup ran his and over his face, Astrid continues,

“Zephyr said she saw him head off towards the western point.”

“He’s sixteen. He probably just wants to, I don’t know, be on his own. Find himself. Avoid his parents.”

“Fifth time; twelve days. Never says where he’s going.”

Astrid gives him a look.

“Fine. I’ll go out there; see if I can find him.”

She pressed a kiss to his cheek,

“Thank you.”

Hiccup puts his papers together in an untidy pile, watches his wife potter around their home with a soppy smile on his face.

“Well? You’re not going to find him just by standing there.”

“Alright, alright. I’m going.”

“You better be.”

 

New Berk is far more rugged the Berk was, and a great deal of the island is unaccessible, so it narrows down the possibilities significantly. Nevertheless, Hiccup is already hours into the search.

“Most chiefs lose their paperwork, or their cloak pin. Not me; I manage to lose my only son.”

The ground here is muddy, close to one of their many rivers, so Hiccup is forced to rely on his good leg and overhanging branches to avoid his prosthetic sinking into the soft ground.

“This is payback, isn’t it? For always running off on _my_ dad when I was that age.”

Up ahead, he knows, is a place where the river widens and slows into a wide pool. It as good a place as any to take a break before he turns around. It might be nearly summer, but he would still like to get home sooner rather than later.

 

Hiccup reaches the point where the trees start thinning when he hears Nuffink laughing. He talking to someone, but Hiccup doesn’t hear them reply. Odd, since Astrid had told him that Nuffink had left on his own.

 

Has he been meeting up with someone on those days he disappears? But who? Hiccup hasn’t welcomed any guests to the island, and New Berk is situated on the only coast where the water is in anyway accessible.

 

Hiccup bends his knees to lower his centre of gravity and creep into the open, but when he catches sight of Nuffink, his heart rate skyrockets and his eyes widen in surprise and he forgets to breath.

 

There’s a dragon.

 

It’s long and sleek and white, with black tips. It’s play wrestling with Nuffink, slobbery tongue messing up his hair.

 

Hiccup _knows_ this dragon.

 

He forgets to be stealthy, and the metal of his leg scrapes across a stone with his next step. The dragon snaps to attention, ear plates upright and it’s attention centres of Hiccup. Hiccup stays very still; Nuffink sees him too, and his expression changes to something decidedly nervous. The dragon’s stance is protective, Nuffink moves between it and his father.

“Uh, hi, Dad.”

“Hi yourself. Your mum sent me to look for you. She’s worried about these disappearing acts of yours.”

Nuffink bites his lip, and casts a side eye at the dragon. It side eyes him back.

“Dad, I know this looks very, um...“

“Nuffink, I don’t need you to ex-“

Words burst, desperately, out of Nuffink;

“You’ve gotta give me a chance to explain!”


End file.
